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Barney Frank says it's highly unlikely that the Federal Government is going to pass online poker legislation in 2012, although some hope can be put into the lame-duck session this November. Massachusetts joins the list of states considering interstate online poker opportunities as means of a new revenue source. Full Tilt Poker continues to make movements towards rebuilding their online poker operations with its subsidiary applying for an e-gaming license. Former online poker payment processor John Campos' guilty plea has been granted with the defendant now facing only a six-month sentence. Find all this and more in the latest Inside Shuffle.

Full Tilt's Orinic Limited Reaching for AGCC License

A public hearing on Full Tilt Poker subsidiary Orinic Limited’s e-gaming license application with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) will take place on Thursday, May 3rd in the Braye Beach Hotel at 14:00 local time. Orinic Limited applied for a Category 2 license on March 23rd, 2012 immediately after the expiration of its Category 1 license six-month suspension period. Orinic's license was suspended in September, 2011 – at the same time AGCC revoked Full Tilt Poker's e-gaming license.

Here's the AGCC's announcement:

In the matter of an application by Orinic Limited for a Category 2 eGambling licence, take notice that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, pursuant to Section 4 of the Alderney eGambling Ordinance, 2009 and Regulation 23 of the Alderney eGambling Regulations, 2009, will hold a public hearing at which oral representations may be made.

Although originally refusing to grant John Campos' guilty plea for a single misdemeanor charge, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan decided to accept it after receiving a written explanation from the prosecutors explaining why Campos' plea was for a misdemeanor bank gambling charge and not for a felony. In the explanation prosecutors claimed that Campos' role in processing illegal online payments was rather small.

“As a result, there is an enhanced risk that jurors could conceivably hesitate to convict Campos despite other evidence tending to negate Campos’ alleged good faith.”

Campos' final sentence is expected to be announced on June 27th. Despite dropping many charges, he still faces six months in prison aside from the lifetime ban from working in the banking industry.

Norfolk Republican Rep. Dan Winslow has made a proposal for the state of Massachusetts to issue three interstate online poker licenses. Winslow suggests that the state follows the examples of Nevada, New Jersey, California, and Delaware which are already taking steps towards creating a licensed and regulated internet poker market to provide the states with a new revenue source. The Boston Herald reports that according to Winslow's plan operators would be charged $10 million for the license and would then have to pay a 25 percent tax on gross gaming proceeds.

“Internet poker is a game of skill that fits our high tech job profile perfectly,” Winslow said. “We can create new, high paying tech jobs by leading the launch of this new industry in the United States.”

Congressman Barney Frank – a long-time online poker patron and supporter in the U.S. House of Representatives - says he's given up hope in seeing online poker legislation go through Congress before his leave in November. Frank had already announced he will not go for another round on Capitol Hill and will retire this fall after 32 consecutive years of service.

Frank has long fought for American citizens' right to play internet poker, however, his efforts have not been crowned with the President signing an online poker legislation bill. Although he says there's still hope for the bill to go through the lame-duck session, Frank himself believes that online poker will only gain support with Sen. Jon Kyl out of the way. Kyl has long opposed online poker legislation, however, like Frank he will be leaving the Senate at the end of the term.

“I'd like to do it but I'm not optimistic,” Frank said. “It's still possible. (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid wants to do it. A lot of people here want to do it. It might get done in the lame duck. It could get done as part of an overall package. But I think other things will replace it. We might have to wait until Kyl is out of office for this to get done.”

In fact the battle between the world's largest poker site and the data-mining sites, the biggest of which is Poker Table Rankings (PTR), has been going on for quite awhile. However, this week's events seem to have put an end to it. PokerStars won!

On Wednesday, April 18th, the Head of Home Games at PokerStars, Lee Jones, gave PokerNews an exclusive interview and said that PokerStars was taking new legal action against PTR to defend its terms of service which prohibits recording player hand histories and statistics. PokerStars reached out to PTR's Internet Service Provider (ISP) which agreed to suspend the service. Now PTR appears to have raised a white flag and complied with PokerStars' demands.

On Thursday, April 19th, PTR published a blog post announcing that the site “will fully comply with PokerStars' cease and desist order by removing the profiles and statistics of all players on the site.”

Still, the PTR team promised to continue to introduce “new and exciting features” to customers.

The United States government's fight against online gaming and its far-reaching effects all over the world is nothing new. This time the indictments against Bodog and its associated brands and companies caused a business process outsourcing (BPO) company in Costa Rica to close doors. The BPO was providing services to Bodog Brand and Morris Mohawk Gaming until December 2011, however, the company's executives have decided to shoot the business down completely in order to avoid any negative feedback that it might receive in relation to the Bodog indictments.

Bill Beatty of CalvinAyre.com claims that BPO’s fear of getting involved in the proceedings against Bodog.com is caused by FBI informant's (CI) allegations. “The CI falsely claimed that in July 2010, “Bodog”, via the entity, Bodog Entertainment Group S.A, had hundreds of employees in Costa Rica…taking bets, tracking sports events etc” Beatty continues. “Thing is, Bodog didn’t have any such offices in Costa Rica.”

This week Daniel Negreanu's Weekly Rant is all about the ladies – Kid Poker talks about some of the best female poker players in the industry sharing his own opinions as well as reviewing their careers so far. However, it wouldn't be called a rant if Negreanu didn't say something bad about someone or at least complain. And you are absolutely right thinking that one female player to receive a huge portion of Negreanu's criticism and judgment is, of course, Annie Duke.

However, Duke is just a side character in the video with much more emphasis given to the positive part featuring, according to Negreanu “honest” female players. He starts the list with Jennifer Harman, who was one of the main tutors for young Daniel when he moved to Vegas. Also among the best women players in Negreanu's list (which is mostly based on the most winningest female players list) are Kathy Liebert, Annette Obrestad, Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Cyndy Violette, Maria Ho, and Liv Boeree.

Check out Negreanu’s talk about the most accomplished women poker players in the latest Weekly Rant:

Doug Tirola Talks About “All In: The Poker Movie”

A lot of things are going on in the poker world surrounding the date April 15th this year and one of them is called “All In: The Poker Movie”. You may have already seen it in movie theaters or at least laid eyes on the short where a lot of people from the poker world talk about Black Friday: how they found out the news and what their reaction was.

PokerWorks' editor-in-chief Linda R. Geenen got the chance to talk to Doug Tirola, the director, writer and producer of “All In: The Poker Movie”. In the interview Tirola shared his experience of making a poker documentary: how long it took to make the movie, why he decided to do it in the first place, what players and other people from the poker world helped him along the way and what it was like to film a private home game where the host was packing heat.

People all over the world are waiting for the Full Tilt Poker issue to be resolved so they can receive their part of the $300 million debt FT owes to their players. About 1/300 of that debt belongs to Blair Hinkle, winner of the FTOPS XIX Main Event. Hinkle won the event just two months before Black Friday and was supposed to receive $1,162,949.74. Hinkle never saw the money. In a recent interview with PokerNews, Hinkle said he tried cashing out a number of times - all in vain.

“I tried to keep a positive attitude and not let it get to me,” Hinkle said. “A few times here and there it would get pretty tough to think about, but I've just told myself don't expect any of the money. That way anything I get will be a bonus.”

Unlike many online grinders Hinkle says he doesn't miss online poker that much and tries to enjoy other things in life together with his friends and family. He also says that the people who are close to him are the main reason he did not move out of the United States to continue his career as an online poker player.